1. ok people, i understand that sometimes in our need to satisfy the users of our themes we get a little confused of what element (wally, coloring, icons etc) we should use in our themes. so we ask for help (i've done it myself also)but now i think we have jumped to the other end. everybody asks the opinion of the others for every step takenas i c it happening. first we have a competition between wallys... ("which should i choose"), then we pass to the colors (of highlighting, of text etc) then i feel we will pass to the icons.... and so it will goi feel the point of the whole STC is every thememaker to present his/her work to the others. the inspiration, the imagination, the whole feeling of the theme. it's healthy of course to present the wallpaper i'm thinking to use (like Brinislaw did) and ask for the opinion (because sometimes a wall probably will raise later issues of visibility, usability even technical in the theme creating that can be in time avoided)thememaking is supposed to be fun and to present our own personality. in the chase of winning if i present a theme that every element was chosen by a small contest inside the big contest, then thememaking looses it's real meaning....but then again everybody does what everybody feels to do.....

2. i would like to ask from everybody to present their themes with the actual screenshots of their themes (in fact, this could be a rule.... (think about it AW and rhtz)with this we achieve the followinga. each maker car check the theme in real before the final post. (sometimes black text in list text gets white and stuff like that. it happens a lot in my n95 8gbb. when creating a theme for s60 3rd edition, everything is well in carbide, but when installed in a pnone (i'm talking again for n95 8gb) some icons are missing and we have the phenomenon of half icons the style the maker used and half icons the default nokia icons. so here a question about the quality of the theme's technick is raised (is that kind of theme better than a theme which is complete in this area because it's fancier? and the work of the theme maker who spent hours trying to find the UID which are missing in order his/her theme to be complete and unvarying?

these are my thoughts people in order to make this contest real useful for our improvement and funny. perhaps this should be post in a different area of the forum, but i feel that some of us who are living members of this organism called STC wouldn't get this thoughts.....

1. ok people, i understand that sometimes in our need to satisfy the users of our themes we get a little confused of what element (wally, coloring, icons etc) we should use in our themes. so we ask for help (i've done it myself also)but now i think we have jumped to the other end. everybody asks the opinion of the others for every step takenas i c it happening. first we have a competition between wallys... ("which should i choose"), then we pass to the colors (of highlighting, of text etc) then i feel we will pass to the icons.... and so it will goi feel the point of the whole STC is every thememaker to present his/her work to the others. the inspiration, the imagination, the whole feeling of the theme. it's healthy of course to present the wallpaper i'm thinking to use (like Brinislaw did) and ask for the opinion (because sometimes a wall probably will raise later issues of visibility, usability even technical in the theme creating that can be in time avoided)thememaking is supposed to be fun and to present our own personality. in the chase of winning if i present a theme that every element was chosen by a small contest inside the big contest, then thememaking looses it's real meaning....but then again everybody does what everybody feels to do.....

2. i would like to ask from everybody to present their themes with the actual screenshots of their themes (in fact, this could be a rule.... (think about it AW and rhtz)with this we achieve the followinga. each maker car check the theme in real before the final post. (sometimes black text in list text gets white and stuff like that. it happens a lot in my n95 8gbb. when creating a theme for s60 3rd edition, everything is well in carbide, but when installed in a pnone (i'm talking again for n95 8gb) some icons are missing and we have the phenomenon of half icons the style the maker used and half icons the default nokia icons. so here a question about the quality of the theme's technick is raised (is that kind of theme better than a theme which is complete in this area because it's fancier? and the work of the theme maker who spent hours trying to find the UID which are missing in order his/her theme to be complete and unvarying?

these are my thoughts people in order to make this contest real useful for our improvement and funny. perhaps this should be post in a different area of the forum, but i feel that some of us who are living members of this organism called STC wouldn't get this thoughts.....

so, once more @rhtz.... i'm in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hey tha_bull, i agree with almost everything you said...a couple of things tho.....I dont have an s603rd phone anymore so am unable to test my theme before submitting, but i will not use carbide to make themes for my new phone, cos i jus dont get it!2nd, i dont even know if it is possible to change all icons, eg operator, i used to use telstra (a provider here in aus) and that icon would always stay as telstra's default, i know there were a few other ones but i cant think of them right now!and while i like the idea of actual screenshots from the phone, some ppl may not want to upload screen shot to their phone!

everything else tho i totally agree, we do ask opinions too often, but i feel we do this to better our technique, maybe not when it comes to actually choosing the wally, but certainly for things like softs, and highlights

i guess u r talking about this to become a rule. yeah, i guess u r right. u can't check it and upload your own screenshot, so that would be unfair to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!, so lets make it an ethical rule for all of us who have this opportunity2nd. operator logo can't be changed, but stuff like maps, search, games, music, 3d tones.... have a problem (i could provide a screenshot, but that would be unethical to the fellow theme maker). the point is that this maker makes the theme for e.g. n73, where there's no problem, but in the theme gallery n73 and n95 8gb themes laying in the same folder. when i install a theme that faces that problem of intergration i can't really use it even if i like the whole project very much.as per people like to upload screens of their own phones, they could provide screens without personal info as many of us aready do.

with my first position, i don't disagree with stuff like softs, highlights or even between a couple of wallys, but it's getting a little tiring to browse between posts with 5 or more wallys trying to decide..... everybody wants to help, but i think it's better to chose by ourselfs our own walls instead of chosing walls for the others and the others for us. it's kind of ironic, don't u think?(after all posting the wall we want to work with, somehow works to get a first feedback for our themes and try to avoid 2 identical walls used by 2 different makers. eventhough i suggested for an STC to b a certain wall for everybody, but this is a total different issue...)

glad we agree in the base of that matter. details will help us to make the best out of it!!!!!!!!!!

@thabullYou raised a couple of points about STC and I can see you want the competition to be better, which is good. Here are my opinion on the issues raised. My 2 cents. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

1. constantly posting screenshots & ask for opinionsSome themers like to do experiment on their own and only post a final entry. Some themers like to hear what others say & change accordingly. Everyone is different. What I think is important is to allow themer to do what they feel comfortable with. It's not mandatory to ask for opinions but it's also not forbidden. Back then, when I was still theming, I only post final product. But I'm open to opinions, if someone point out something I will open the theme creator, check then decide if I want to make changes. But a lot of the time, what they say is true. It makes my theme better & help me to improve.

2. posting screenshots taken from the phoneThis is ideal. I know some of the themers do that every time. But as Daisy pointed out some themers no longer have a compatible phone. So yeah, I agree with you that for those who have the phone, it's best if they do it. But it won't be made a rule in STC. Btw, this is one reason why we invite experience themers to be judges. Often, judges are those who know a lot about Carbide and their S60 or Series 40 phone. Some of them even test every theme on their phone to see if there are problems not seen in Carbide. We hope that helps to select the best theme to win in STC.

*note: Icons is a fascinating thing. I use themes with customised icons but then sometimes a uncustomised icon stand out too much from the rest of the set then I'm back to themes with default icons. It's probably impossible to customise every single app icons available out there. Lots of them!

@all STC participantsWhat's your opinion on the things thabull suggested? Voice them out. This is your competition so we wanna hear from you.

@thabullYou raised a couple of points about STC and I can see you want the competition to be better, which is good. Here are my opinion on the issues raised. My 2 cents. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

1. constantly posting screenshots & ask for opinionsSome themers like to do experiment on their own and only post a final entry. Some themers like to hear what others say & change accordingly. Everyone is different. What I think is important is to allow themer to do what they feel comfortable with. It's not mandatory to ask for opinions but it's also not forbidden. Back then, when I was still theming, I only post final product. But I'm open to opinions, if someone point out something I will open the theme creator, check then decide if I want to make changes. But a lot of the time, what they say is true. It makes my theme better & help me to improve.

2. posting screenshots taken from the phoneThis is ideal. I know some of the themers do that every time. But as Daisy pointed out some themers no longer have a compatible phone. So yeah, I agree with you that for those who have the phone, it's best if they do it. But it won't be made a rule in STC. Btw, this is one reason why we invite experience themers to be judges. Often, judges are those who know a lot about Carbide and their S60 or Series 40 phone. Some of them even test every theme on their phone to see if there are problems not seen in Carbide. We hope that helps to select the best theme to win in STC.

*note: Icons is a fascinating thing. I use themes with customised icons but then sometimes a uncustomised icon stand out too much from the rest of the set then I'm back to themes with default icons. It's probably impossible to customise every single app icons available out there. Lots of them!

@all STC participantsWhat's your opinion on the things thabull suggested? Voice them out. This is your competition so we wanna hear from you.

there have been alot of valid points raised here, like daisy i also no longer have a phone to test s40 themes, but im not a big fan of s60 themes i find them difficult to make. as for asking questions from a personal view, i do regularly ask for the opinions of others for the simple reason that im not good at making themes and when i recieve feedback it helps build my confidence

@AW totally agree.... (as i already posted for daisy) and as u gave me the whole experienced judges issue, there's no longer a screen issue for me.

@everybodythe point for me is that i still don't see how letting people chose for me between 10 wallys makes me a better themer. it's like i've created 10 different themes and i'm asking which one is better so i use it in the competition. i say once again that it's ok with me to let people say their opinion between a couple of wallys where somebody may be confused (i did it myself sometime), but between 6 or 10?

i didn't post this for some people to apologize. there's no need for anybody to do that. we are all individuals and that's the beautiful part of it

i just proposed some things in order to make the thread fun and not tiring (in my opinion....)

1. make it easy to rest by let choosing between our final couple of wall choices2. when possible using real screens

this is the conclusion of my general thinking..... i just fell the need to justify my 2 proposals....

@galmedGood point on decreasing the size of the preview. I can understand viewing those big previews takes ages to load. Unfortunately save for web reduces the quality of the image which is not what most themers want to see. They want to present the best of their work.

@rhtz @thabullNice topic! Might give people the choice to make either the old or the new 7 wonders of the world. However, since we just had the landscape topic, I will reserve this topic for future STC. Agree?

@galmedGood point on decreasing the size of the preview. I can understand viewing those big previews takes ages to load. Unfortunately save for web reduces the quality of the image which is not what most themers want to see. They want to present the best of their work.

@rhtz @thabullNice topic! Might give people the choice to make either the old or the new 7 wonders of the world. However, since we just had the landscape topic, I will reserve this topic for future STC. Agree?